Thieves World 3 – Shadows of Sanctuary by Asprin, Robert

He was good at it; six minutes ago four cautious people had passed close enough

to touch him, and never knew he was there.

I want nothing of you, incestuous god of Ranke, he thought, almost speaking

while a thousand ants seemed at play along his spine. Tempus serves you. I do

not and will not.

Yet you do this night, seeking him, that silent voice that was surely the god

Vashanka’s said. And a cloud ate the moon.

No! I serve – I mean… I do not… No!… Tempus is my… my… I go to aid a

fr- man who might help me! Leave me and go to him, jealous god of Ranke! Leave

Sanctuary to my patron Shalpa the Swift, and Our Lord Ils. Ils, Ils, 0 Lord of

a Thousand Eyes, why is it not You who speaks to me?

There was no reply. Clouds rolled and they seemed dark men astride dark horses

that loped with manes and long tails aflow. Hanse felt a sudden chill absence of

that presence in his mind. In a few seconds he was praying not to gods but

cursing himself for giving heed to the delusions of a dark night, a night badly

ruled by a moon pale as a Rankan concubine and now covered like the whore she

was. The Swift-footed One ruled this night.

And Hanse went on, not in shadows now for there were no shadows; all the land

was one vast shadow. Out of Sanctuary. Past lovers who neither saw nor heard

this son of Shalpa the Shadowed One. On, to the beautifully tended gardens

surrounding the house of a pasty-faced walking skeleton called Kurd and worse.

The little crescent of moon pretended to return. It was only a ghost struggling